Nancy Dowd posted first with an important and provocative set of questions. She makes the accurate observation that the book is “unabashedly” focused on women. Indeed, it is. She encourages that we ask the “other questions,” invoking the advice of Mari Matsuda to look at objectionable patterns and practices and ask whether there isn’t something other than the obvious thing going on. In other words, when you identify a practice that is harmful to women, ask whether it might also involve race or class. And even when looking at problems from a strictly gender perspective—think about men. Where are they in the equation? Dowd is the perfect person to encourage this broadening of perspectives, as she has been a pioneer in the emerging field of masculinities theory (her 2010 book The Man Question is a staple in the field) and has done a brilliant job in her more recent work of unmasking the racial biases in the juvenile justice system. So why didn’t I ask more complex questions about race, class, gender identity, and the intersectional effects of these characteristics? The cheeky answer is that a book that managed to ask all those questions would be long enough to be slapped with a cover price that would deter all potential readers. But the real answer is that my focus on women as individuals and as a category was purposeful. It was an effort to refute a complacency that has developed specifically around gender. People tend to think that because the law embraces gender equality, we have achieved it. References to a post-gender millennium and headlines saying “We did it!” (with a picture of Rosie the Riveter) make me crazy. What I see when I look at the experience of women at work is that gender is everywhere and it operates largely to the disadvantage of women. Read More